Land Development Code Update?

Today is a county commission day. Odd that it is not on a Tuesday, but here we are.

Today should go pretty quickly. One thing that may get some attention and discussion is Commissioner Kinnard's item to address the Land Development Code after the Pine Ridge ruling a few weeks ago.

It is a 1:35pm time certain, so it should be around that time if you want to come and have your say.

So what exactly is changing? A total of 42 words are added to section 4300 of the Land Development Code.

Basically... this allows developers to change a Development of Regional Impact via the Planned Unit Development process. That did not exist before the and judge in the Pine Ridge case ruled that since the county did not have a method to change the DRI, the fact they changed if via the PUD process was invalid.

Now, why are we here today and why does this seem kind of rushed through?

Well, last meeting, Citrus Hills amended a DRI with a PUD when they asked to add more commercial square footage.

The next meeting (October 13th) will have Betz Farm on the agenda. They are asking to amend a DRI with a PUD.

For those sleeping under a rock, the owner of the Pine Ridge golf course which was involved in the judge's ruling is also the person who is under contract to buy Betz Farm.

You can see how they would be interested in getting this done prior to that meeting. This board (many of them) certainly love their James Dicks... so I suspect that this is getting put to a vote today to avoid any issues with Betz using the same process that was used for the golf course, and rejected so far by the courts.

Speaking of Betz... I was doing some research for the hearing and came across this comment.

This is Clark Stillwell. At the time of this meeting, he was the attorney James Dicks was using for his Betz Farm contract.

This clip is Stillwell admitting that if the addendum were signed, that they would have 30 days (it was really 20 days in the text) after the due diligence period to file the application for the project, or they would be in default. They filed it approximately 60 days after the due diligence period.

This is important because the April 2026 vote to cancel the contract was in part based on missing this deadline.

Here is the attorney for James Dicks telling the commissioners that they would be in default of the contract if they did not meet this deadline.

Then Batsel gets to the board and tells them that the county would be in default and they would threaten to sue the county over it?

Play this tape and its case closed.

So tell me again why the commissioner caved and then re-instated the contract? Oh... right... they got some pressure to do so and Dicks/Batsel threw them some big numbers to "scare" them into changing their minds.

I wish I had gone back and watched the meeting before the May 2026 vote to re-instate the contract. I would have had this play (or emailed it to them prior) showing that their attorney admitted they would be in default if they missed that deadline... that they in fact missed.

In any case, if you want a say in Betz Farm, make sure you come out at 5pm on October 13th and make your voices heard.